Trump is an effective con man who has a good sense of what animates his voting base. ...that withdrawing a few hundred troops would appeal to the sector of the population that resonates to his message that America is foolishly expending its blood and treasure to help “unworthy” people...
Haiti: 4 More Dead in Longest Bout Of Protests Against President Telesur October 12, 2019 So far, around 17 people have died and almost two hundred have been injured in the month-long protests. At least four people have died and dozens were injured between Friday and Saturday in strong protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, after police used tear gas to More
Discussing the US role in the Syrian conflict.
"When your version comes out -- if you do it -- people in Pakistan will be tremendously grateful," Durrani told me. "For a long time people have stopped trusting what comes out about bin Laden from the official mouths. There will be some negative political comment and some anger, but people like to be told the truth, and what you've told me is essentially what I have heard from former colleagues who have been on a fact finding mission since this episode."
If the GPI is right about what produces peace, you’d have to conclude that the US is heading toward increased violence.
Chomsky: One informative discussion, in Business Week (Feb. 12, 1949), recognized that social spending could have the same "pump-priming" effect as military spending, but pointed out that for businessmen, "there's a tremendous social and economic difference between welfare pump-priming and military pump-priming." The latter "doesn't really alter the structure of the economy." For the businessman, it's just another order. But welfare and public works spending "does alter the economy. It makes new channels of its own. It creates new institutions. It redistributes income." And we can add more. Military spending scarcely involves the public, but social spending does, and has a democratizing effect.
Destruction of ISIS by any means that can be imagined might lay the basis for something worse, as has been happening quite regularly with military intervention. The state system in the region imposed by French and British imperial might after World War I, with little concern for the populations under their control, is unraveling.
In the wake of Turkey’s intentional downing of a Russian jet over Syrian airspace it appears the wrong lessons are being learned. https://youtu.be/XrcuBxxOK2I Instead of greater cooperation to fight terrorism, we see the US doubling down on its failed policy. Events are spinning out of control as Syria turns into a battleground for military More
Van Auken: The NATO ministers, including US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, seized upon Moscow’s airstrikes in Syria against Islamist militias seeking the overthrow of the government of President Bashar al-Assad as the pretext for more aggressive deployments of military forces on Russia’s border.
Bello: Yes, these people are refugees. People who are not safe in their homes, who live in countries which no longer have untainted water supplies and where economic “opportunities” are either nonexistent or too dangerous to pursue are refugees.
